Vancouver Institute Lectures

History of the Vancouver Institute, 1916-present

A liaison between “town and gown”, providing lectures of general public interest.

This list of speakers and lecture topics provides a very useful overview of the historical development of the Vancouver Institute.

For more details about the history of the Institute see:

Nemetz, Peter (ed.) The Vancouver Institute: An Experiment in Public Education (1998)
The Introduction and five Appendices of this collection of lectures are now available in .pdf format.

Vancouver Institute records in the University Archives (particularly the history of the Institute prepared by M.Y. Williams, Box 1 – File 1).

The Vancouver Institute was established in 1916 to serve as a liaison between “town and gown” (i.e. between the community and the University) in providing lectures of general public interest. All lectures were free to the public and were initially presented at the Assembly hall at the old Fairview campus (now the site of Vancouver General Hospital) of the University of British Columbia. In 1925 the University moved to its current Point Grey site. Vancouver Institute Lecture organizers attempted to secure quarters close to the downtown audience as transportation at that time presented some problems. M.Y. Williams in his 1956 history of the Institute described the problem:

At that time Tenth Avenue was paved with rotten planks from Alma Road for some two blocks east. Chancellor Boulevard connected with a dirt trail through the woods to Eighth Avenue at Blanca Street, and although the Tenth Avenue Boulevard from Blanca to the University was paved, cars were scarce and bus service none too good.

After operating for four years without a regular meeting hall and an increasing detachment between “town and gown”, the Institute rejoined the University at Point Grey in 1929. Since this time the Institute has presented lectures by UBC faculty members as well as other world class scholars and news-makers.

Speakers and Lecture Topics

Most Vancouver Institute lectures after 1975 were recorded and these audio (a) or video (v) tapes are available in the University Archives. A large majority of these recordings have been digitized and are available on-line. To access the digitized versions of these lectures click on the hyper-linked titles on the following lists or go to the Vancouver Institute collection in cIRcle.